How to Design a Bio-intensive Garden

Related Articles

Bio-intensive gardening is a system of producing food that concentrates on harvesting the largest amount of crops using the least amount of resources. These gardens use less land, water, fertilizer and even human effort than other, traditional methods and often produce many times as many vegetables. A bio-intensive garden is a connected collection of systems, based on the way the plants are laid out and the plants that you choose to grow. Each of these gardens is an individual effort, and there is no perfect bio-intensive design, but every one of them relies on a set of principles focusing on efficient food production.

1

Purchase or build a compost bin, or set up a system of compost heaps. Bio-intense gardens need a lot of nutrients, and compost is a free and simple way to amend the soil while feeding your crops. Turn every scrap of dead plant material and kitchen waste into compost, and you'll have a continuous supply of free plant food.

2

Lay out your garden outline in a sunny area of the yard that gets at least six hours of sunlight each day. Stay away from trees or outbuildings that may cast shade in early morning or late afternoon. If you have a chain-link fence around your property, place the garden against the fence to take advantage of the available vine support system.

3

Double-dig the entire garden plot to give the soil aeration and remove any compacting that may have happened. Do this by digging a 12-inch-wide trench that measures 12 inches deep for the entire length of the garden. Place the soil in a wheelbarrow or on a tarp. Dig down another 12 inches and turn over this second foot of soil. Dig a second trench right next to the first one. Pile the soil from the second trench into the first one, mixing in a large amount of well-rotted compost. Dig and turn over the bottom 12 inches of the second trench. Continue on digging trenches in a striped pattern until you reach the end of the garden. Fill in the top of the last trench with the soil you took from the first on, mixed with compost. Do not stand on this soil after you have finished double-digging.

4

Select your seeds with an eye to efficiency. Choose compact plants if they will produce the same amount of food as full-sized varieties; otherwise, opt for the full-sized ones. Grow vegetables with a large amount of nutritional value and calories such as sweet potatoes and leeks. Avoid hybrids and choose open-pollinated versions of all your vegetable seeds. This will allow you to save your seeds for the next year's planting. Pick early and late-season crops to take advantage of the entire length of your growing season.

5

Use French intensive or square-foot gardening methods to get the greatest yield from the soil. Plant each seed so the adult plant's leaves will barely touch its neighbors with no space in between. You can find this distance by looking on the seed package. The planting instructions should tell you to plant something like every 4 inches in 2-foot rows. This tells you that the plants can grow every 4 inches. Plant them with this spacing in every direction in blocks, rather than rows. Leave the smallest space possible between blocks, just enough to walk through to tend the vegetables.

6

Grow vining plants on stakes, fences or tomato cages to free up soil underneath. Plant pole beans at the base of corn stalks. Support heavier crops like melons and gourds with fabric slings so they can still grow vertically.

7

Install a soaker hose system to concentrate water at the base of the plants rather than watering the entire garden. Allow one section of the garden to soak for a few minutes, then move the hose to cover another section. Continue this until the entire garden has been thoroughly watered.

8

Pull up dead and dying plants in the fall and replant the soil with cool-season crops such as cabbages, carrots, broccoli and onions. Quicker crops such as radish and lettuce do well in the fall, as well, as long as the worst heat of summer has passed.

About the Author

Working in sunny Florida, Anne Baley has been writing professionally since 2009. Her home and lifestyle articles have been seen on Coldwell Banker and Gardening Know How. Baley has published a series of books teaching how to live a frugal life with style and panache.